London Borough realising a vision of flexible working

Thintech, in partnership with Capita, is working with the Council of the London Borough of Merton to bring Citrix technology to 2,000 employees – giving them the benefits associated with flexible location working and Bring-Your-Own-Device to access work applications, documents and rich media on the move.

With a dispersed workforce, and under pressure to reduce costs, the Council turned to Citrix XenApp® and XenDesktop® technology, delivered by Thintech, to provide desktop virtualisation, including hosted shared desktops, and Citrix NetScaler® to develop a cloud-based internal network where employees can access secure server-based resources and personal desktops.

The challenges Merton faced – high overheads and a dispersed workforce – are common to many organisations. Virtual desktops accommodate flexibility whilst also allowing existing network infrastructures to be simplified – reducing costs and load for IT departments.

Merton also has plans to become a shared services provider, allowing other London councils to merge IT infrastructures.

“We were specifically looking for a Citrix solution, and Thintech’s knowledge and passion for it came through in their design, which has been flexible enough to accommodate changes.”Richard Warren, Head of IT, London Borough of Merton.

“We’ve been able to ensure that our staff have access to the information they need wherever they are, whatever the device they use, and also achieved significant efficiency savings by consolidating office resources. Not only have we saved money on office space, we’ve also been able to reduce the management overheads associated with running the PC estate.”